Andrea Peyser: Pedestrian Mall Pollutes Fresh, Healthful Midtown Air

May 27, 2009

The New York Post tells us today that the Times Square pedestrian mall is not only a flop but an outrage to “real New Yorkers” — that is, people who drive through midtown and Andrea Peyser. The noisome columnist depicts the great experiment as Mayor Bloomberg’s “payback” and “the mother of all hissy fits” for the failure of congestion pricing. She also dislikes the tourists who avail the space, because they produce “gas” engendered by “Starbucks venti chocolate mint frappuccinos,” and tobacco smoke. The latter particularly repulses her: foreigners and office workers “stunk up the atmosphere with fumes from their Rothmans and Marlboros” and “stink us out” — in Times Square, which normally smells like a Glade commercial. We smell five-part series — Peyser’s investigation into the death of Anna Nicole Smith may not have moved the Pulitzer committee, but we can’t see how this will fail to. Particularly when she finds out those lawn chairs are made in China!